Next months of rumor and controversy, the PGA Tour has at past met its bona fide challenger.
The LIV Golf Series — an audacious Saudi-backed commence-up tour — is hoping to acquire the planet of golfing by storm. With two-time significant winner Greg Norman at the helm, LIV Golfing has pried absent an array of well known figures from the PGA Tour, with the assure of lucrative payouts in return. Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson are among the noteworthy golfers to flee to the new circuit.
And as the exodus from the PGA Tour escalates, the photograph of experienced golfing is growing murkier by the minute.
Here is all you require to know about the LIV Golf tour ahead of its inaugural party on Thursday, June 9:
What is the Saudi-backed golfing league, LIV Golf?
LIV Golfing is a start out-up tour hoping to set up alone as a breakaway circuit and competitor to the PGA Tour. It is funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Expense Fund (PIF), consequently earning the “Saudi Golfing League” moniker.
Amongst the appeals of LIV Golfing, golfers are paid on a per-function foundation and do not have to commit to a complete function agenda. Other differentiators from the PGA Tour involve less tournaments, no cuts and engage in consisting of 3 rounds for a complete of 54 holes.
Celebration fields are also confined to 48 golfers, who are then divided into twelve 4-person teams for a mix of particular person and workforce levels of competition. Perform will commence in a shotgun format, with players teeing off at the exact same time at distinctive holes.
Saudi LIV Golf controversy described
The PIF has pledged $400 million on your own to fund the league’s inaugural 2022 time, $255 of which will be allocated for prize revenue.
These beneficial figures, however, have lifted pink flags when put in conversation with Saudi Arabia’s modern background.
The Saudi Arabia authorities has often been accused of human-rights violations, as well as war crimes. Most notably, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was identified to have permitted the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
LIV Golf, then, has been criticized by some as “sportswashing,” an attempt by the government to divert attention from its wrongdoings and forged by itself as a “normal” country by means of the projection of athletics. Norman, for one particular, has downplayed the significance of Khashoggi’s murder when defending his involvement with the tour.
When is the Saudi Golf LIV Invitational?
The circuit’s inaugural period kicks off Thursday, June 9 for a a few-day occasion in London at the Centurion Club. Across its 4-month year, LIV Golfing will host eight activities — seven personal situations and one crew championship, the place players will coalesce to vie for the LIV Golfing crew trophy.
A comprehensive agenda of functions is involved below:
London, England: June 9-11
Portland, Oregon: June 30 – July 2
Bedminster, New Jersey: July 29-31
Boston, Massachusetts: Sept. 2-4
Chicago, Illinois: Sept. 16-18
Bangkok, Thailand: Oct. 7-9
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Oct. 14-16
Miami, Florida: Oct. 27-30
How to check out the LIV Golfing Invitational
The London function starts Thursday, June 9 at 9 a.m. EST. Enjoy can be streamed at LIVGolf.com, YouTube and Facebook the circuit has not yet arrived at a broadcast television offer in the United States.
Who is competing in the Saudi Golf League, and who’s not?
LIV Golfing has lured an impressive assortment of golfers from the PGA circuit, headlined by Johnson, the maximum-ranked participant to sign up for the tour at No. 15, and Mickelson.
Other major-50 players contain Louis Oosthuizen (No. 21), Bryson DeChambeau (No. 26), Kevin Na (No. 34), Talor Gooch (No. 35) and Patrick Reed (No. 36).
For now, Johnson stays the most-touted defector, with a massive part of the sport’s upper-echelon remaining in the PGA Tour.
World No. 8 Rory McIlroy hasn’t modified his brain on the LIV tour considering the fact that its inception. The Irishman reiterated his thoughts this week.
“I consider my stance on it has been very crystal clear from the get started,” he claimed ahead of the RBC Canadian Open up. “It’s not a little something that I want to take part in. I undoubtedly have an understanding of the men that have went. I fully grasp what their goals and their ambitions are in their everyday living. I’m unquestionably not knocking any one for going. It’s their life, it is their choice, they can dwell it the way they want to.”
Saudi Golfing League Prize Income
Not only has LIV Golfing shelled out ludicrous quantities of money to entice golfers to the tour — Mickelson, for occasion, was given $200 million — but the circuit is upping the ante on prize cash, much too.
Each individual function has a $20 million prize pool, along with a scaled-down $5 million purse reserved for workforce levels of competition. Personal payouts assortment from an estimated $4 million for the to start with location finisher to $120,000 for the final put finisher. October’s top Group Championship, in the meantime, carries a $50 million prize pool.
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